About

Machinedrum is easily the most well-known alias attributed to American electronic musician Travis Stewart, who has also released material as Syndrone, tstewart, Neon Black, and Aden. Initially credited as Machine Drum (two words), he was one of the primary exponents of glitch-hop during the early 2000s, with acclaimed albums such as 2001's Now You Know and 2004's Bidnezz finding common ground between hip-hop rhythms and the tightly programmed experimental electronic sounds of IDM labels such as Skam, Warp, and Rephlex. The album was conceived after Travis Stewart found a DOS emulator and accessed old hard drives full of beats he made in Impulse Tracker during the late '90s. He built up sound banks inspired by these beats, then experimented and came up with dozens of ideas, ultimately choosing the best ones to develop into full songs. 

3FOR82 builds on the vocalist-centric, genre-blending songwriting of the last Machinedrum album, 2020’s A View Of U, and the thematic groundwork laid down on 2023 EP 4#TRAX (dedicated to channel trax on IRC, a ‘90s chat platform). Between drum & bass, hip-hop, jazz, R&B and juke, dazzling beat switches and a singular ear for sonics, Stewart weaves in a crew of collaborators. Jesse Boykins III, the album’s co-executive producer and a close friend of Stewart, leads with various contributions; while a ritzy cast including Tinashe, KUČKA, Duckwrth, AKTHESAVIOR, Mick Jenkins, Ezri, Tanerélle, Deniro Farrar, Topaz Jones, deem spencer, aja monet, ROZET, Will Johnson and Ian Maciak rounds the record off.

As much as possible on 3FOR82, Machinedrum brought each vocalist into the studio for face-to-face time, and they’d record conversations on his camera focused on a theme: “If you could visit with your younger self, what would you say to them?” From there, vocalists wrote lyrics to, or as, their teenage selves. Choice quotes are woven into the music as monologues or samples — 3FOR82’s opener, ‘Oracle’ begins with reflections from aja monet on dancing alone. On lead single ‘ZOOM’, Tinashé narrates youthful lust on the dancefloor; at one juncture in ‘KILL_U’, Tanerélle’s soothing tones reminds you that, at times, “You’re lost, then you’re found, there’s so much you achieve”; across ‘U_WANT’, KUČKA tells herself “there will be better days”; while on ‘RISE’, ROZET riffs that she’ll “grow from the floor to the sky”. The effect the theme has on 3FOR82 is tender and punchy, tying these strands of R&B, pop, jazz and drum & bass together. — via Label

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Label: Ninja Tune
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Released: 2024
Genre: Electronic, Hip Hop
Style: Hip Hop, Rap, UK Garage

File under: Hip-hop 2000 & beyond
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